day 136: getting a handle on some pesky concepts & that pesky kuen wu jian

concepts:

• slow, long, even, deep
• breathing
• useful references in tai chi (Wang Zhong Yue)
  
• long v. short
• coming to the gate
  
• whirlpools, tangents, vectors, curves
• jing (ting, hwa, na, fa)
• physics
  
• fa (yen, so, sheng, bu)
• 6 harmonies
• yin & yang (wife & husband, guiding)
• wu ji & tai ji
• somatic v. autonomic
  

forms:

• chen long form
• kuen wu jian
  

today began as a lazy Sunday, with people arriving late, but ended up turning into a long day. we began with Sifu discussing the plans for Sunday classes, now that we've finished the chen long form and kuen wu jian yilu. he said that he was open to discussing what we wanted to cover next, but his own thoughts on the matter were that it would be most logical to continue with both chen tai chi and kuen wu, which would mean going on to chen pao quan and kuen wu erlu. both of these integrate force into the movements, and are much more combat-relevant forms than what we've learned so far.

however, Sifu noted that in order to continue onto to these levels, he wanted us to 1) start work on tai chi push hands, and 2) refine our movements or both chen tai chi and kuen wu jian. he also said we would need to start devoting more time to preparing for the Las Vegas tournament, so we needed to do much more work with combat applications we've learned to date--and even if we weren't going to Las Vegas, we still needed to understand the applications of what we were doing in order to progress any farther.

i've had conversations with Phunsak about what we wanted to cover for Sundays in the recent months. for his sake, i know he wanted to go through hsing-yi and possibly shuai jiao. he's already had chen pao quan and kuen wu erlu, but he said today that he's willing to go along with whatever the rest of class is doing, since he can get what he wants on an individual consulting basis with Sifu. me personally, i'm interested in the same things as Phunsak, but with the exception that 1) i'm more curious about hsing-yi liu he (mostly because Sifu has expressed some respect for it, and because it originates from the muslim regions of China and so follows some logical consistency with the islamic long fist we've been learning), 2) if i learn shuai jiao, i'd prefer to do it at the same time as baji quan (because they're both old, and i really am going to see the threads of history, i want to be able to compare them to each other), and 3) it's just not time yet (what can i say? i appreciate zen...and a sentiment in zen is that there is a time for everything, and you cannot force the time, but you have to allow it come on its own, and when it's time, you will know it's time).

with those announcements, and more students having arrived, Sifu formally began class.

chen long form

we started with a few repetitions of the chen long form. Sifu told us we needed to focus on polishing our movements, and repeated the same things he said from the UCLA tai chi class, saying that to polish our performance we needed to try to do the following:

• do the movements slow
• do the movements low and long (i.e., low center of gravity, with extended bodies)
• do the movements even (i.e., keep a steady pace--even the explosive movements need to fit within the pace of the form)
• do the movements deep (i.e., follow-through)
  

this is basically the concepts he had given to the UCLA tai chi class in the acronym SLED (slow, long, even, deep). he also added a concept from the UCLA class by stressing breathing, telling us to integrate a 2-count breathing pattern into the movements (with 1 being a breath in, and 2 being a breath out), so that the 1st count would be for any contraction movement and the 2nd count would be for any expansion or explosive movement.

following this, we took a little time to review some applications, with Sifu taking a question-and-answer session to discuss the various permutations possible from certain movements. it was because of this that i think he saw an opportunity to have a more extended conversation about some concepts we've had in the past, and decided to take the time to go into a more in-depth presentation of some ideas he has on combat applications in relation to principles of northern Chinese TCMA.

Sifu began by referring to Wang Zhong Yue's Treatise on Tai Chi Quan (i actually got the name this time...), citing it as probably one of only a handful of useful tai chi texts, since it 1) was written by an experienced martial arts practitioner, and so 2) provides relevant martial arts usage. he pointed out, however, that Wang's text, while comprehensive, is also short, and written in a highly complex, multi-layered, subtle style, and as a result has been subject to extensive misinterpretation or misunderstanding. Wang himself even warns against this in the treatise, admonishing readers that if they have a bad teacher teaching from the text that they will never understand what the treatise is saying.

this last warning was emphasized by Sifu. he said this is why it is important to utilize critical thinking skills in learning, and to maintain a healthy skepticism in learning any martial art--not just tai chi. he said we needed to try to realistically apply lessons and concepts to test their worth, and to understand 1) if they are useful, 2) when they are useful, 3) how they are useful, and 4) why they are useful. it's only this way that we can become skilled martial artists, and only this way that we can get an appreciation for the true lessons in texts like Wang's treatise.

with that note, Sifu then went through some concepts he's tested through personal experience. Sifu has dealt with a lot of combat concepts in the past, and so for the sake of brevity i won't repeat all the material that i've written about before, even though we reviewed it briefly today to produce context for the additional comments we covered this class. focusing on just the new stuff, Sifu mentioned the following:

• long v. short--yesterday (reference: day 135) we talked about why short distance was better than long distance. Sifu added more today, commenting that "long" and "short" didn't just exclusively refer to the physical distance between you and the opponent, but also refers to the physical extension of your body. fully extended limbs and body at the apex of your reach is "long" and non-extended limbs and body that are coiled to release energy is "short." of course, being fully extended often occurs when the opponent is farthest away from, and being coiled (or retracted) allows you to get closer to the opponent. with TCMA (particularly the northern Chinese martial arts), Sifu noted, the philosophy is to close in with the opponent to get into "short" range, such that the potential energy of your recoiled or retracted limbs can then be released as kinetic energy as you extend or expand outward. Sifu said this is also an element in fa jing, since the act of extension or expansion generates power, particularly if you are able to follow-through in a way that your strikes are moving through or past the opponent (as opposed to going at them...which tends to lead you to aim at them from a distance, or "long", and thereby robbing you of the additional power from your potential energy). Sifu pointed out that most fighters (martial artists and non-martial artists) are instinctively long range, and that few people are short range.
  
• coming to the gate--getting into "short" range requires seeing and getting into the opponent's gate. in past conversations, we've talked about using jing (ting, hwa, na) to manipulate the opponent in a way that allows you to locate, or generate, and then enter the opponent's gate. this time, however, Sifu pointed out that with some martial arts (particularly bagua) this is refined, so that the philosophy is not about you using your jing to get into the opponent's gate, but instead exploiting the opponent's jing. this means that rather than working to get into their gate, you simply to let the opponent come to your gate, so that they come into your range, at which point you can then manipulate them. Sifu had mentioned this during dinner with Neal following last weekend's seminar. he noted that this is more efficient in terms of energy, in that you save energy and allow the opponent to expend their energy.
  
• whirlpools, tangents, vectors, curves--in dealing with short ranges, Sifu reminded us to try and visualize whirlpools, tangents, vectors, and curves. he said this makes it dramatically easier to understand in what direction and with how much force we need to move. today, he added that we also need to understand that we have to adjust the direction and magnitude of these to fit our desired actions, and that such quantities will vary depending on what the opponent is doing. none of these things are static...nor should they ever be.
  
• jing (ting, hwa, na, fa)--repeating his point from yesterday, Sifu said that combat is actually less about fa jing, and mostly about ting, hwa, and na jing. according to him, the common misperception is that combat is about power projection. in reality, power can be completely ineffective if it is not applied properly to maximize damage to the opponent. but in order for this to occur, you have to be positioned correctly (na jing), but this in turn requires that you have controlled or manipulated the opponent in a desired way (hwa jing), and this in turn requires that you have correctly sensed the opponent's actions, intent, and strategy (ting jing). Sifu said this is the jing cycle, and that it always begins with ting, and ends with fa. the key thing to remember is that it is an iterative loop: if at any point one step in the sequence fails, you have to go back to the beginning and start with ting jing again. Sifu said this means that in a fight, the most common factor is ting jing, and the next stages in the jing cycle are progressively less common, with fa jing being the least prevalent in the cycle.
  
• fa (yen, so, sheng, bu)--Sifu said that all jings, to be done correctly, require coordination of the 4 fas (again, not to be confused with the fa in fa jing). this requires yen fa (eyes), so fa (hands), sheng fa (torso), and bu fa (feet) all act in unison. this is necessary to enable your body to become a conduit of the principles you are trying to apply, which Sifu explained are really just physics.
• physics--all martial arts are about physics, and applications of physics. Sifu said he can break down techniques using Newton's 3 laws of physics and basic thermodynamics. there is nothing mysterious about martial arts, only the challenge of moving your body and visualizing in your mind in ways that enable the execution of physics for combat purposes.
  
• 6 harmonies--i asked about the connection between yen, so, sen, and bu fa and 6 harmonies (i.e., hands coordinated with feet, elbows coordinated with knees, and shoulders with hips). Sifu said that the connection between the 2 concepts exists, in that 6 harmonies is a way of visualizing and applying the 4 fas.
  
• yin & yang (wife & husband, guiding)--Sifu demonstrated again the notion of wife & husband yin & yang, and explained that this was really just an example of the 4 fas, with the wife action coordinating with the husband action to better apply physics for maximum damage to the enemy. he noted, however, that this can further be seen as an example of how we can guide yin & yang. in the past, we've talked about breaking the opponent's structure by applying yang to their yin, or yin to their yang. Sifu commented that this doesn't mean we have to be purely passive or reactionary to the opponents yin or yang states. it is actually possible to guide the opponent into whatever state, or set of states, that we prefer. for example, if an opponent's structure is set with a yang projection towards you and a yin side away, and you prefer to change this so that you can face a yin projection, you can manipulate them into moving so that their structure changes into your desired preference. this means you can entice the opponent to move from yang to yin, so that you can apply yang, or vice versa. this can also apply to individual limbs, and not just the opponent's entire body.
  
• wu ji & tai ji--Sifu pointed out that in tai chi quan, there's the concepts of wu ji and tai ji. Sifu said that one interpretation of these terms is that wu ji is energy, and tai ji is matter. but even in Western physics, the 2 are really related to each other, with Einstein's famous equation showing that they are really interchangeable forms of one another. in tai chi, and even in TCMA in general, this is entirely compatible, since the philosophy is that the practitioner be able to move from one state to another: from static to dynamic, from stillness to motion, emptiness to substance, from soft to hard. the point is that you can never be stagnant. Sifu observed that neither wu ji or tai ji means "nothing," but instead mean "something," with "something" always changing.
  
• somatic v. autonomic--somatic deals with "fight or flight" responses, autonomic with baser, more subconscious ones. according to Sifu, somatic responses are yang, and autonomic responses are yin. in TCMA, particularly the internal styles, the philosophy is to play with the opponent's autonomic system to induce changes that dissipate their yang into yin. this is how we manipulate the opponent's yang and yin states.
  

once we finished the above, we did a couple of more iterations of the chen long form, and then took a break before moving onto the kuen wu jian. by this time, Lance and Andre had shown up, complete with their arsenal of weapons (i should note they are more senior students of Sifu's, even more senior than Phunsak, and have recently begun showing up for class again, but primarily just to review their weapons skills, which i'm guessing is their main interest for now).

kuen wu jian

we did a few repetitions of the kuen wu jian form, and then on John and my request, we spent some time focusing exclusively on the end of the form. this has been a decidedly frustrating part of the form for me, and i was happy to see us working methodically through this. while it may have been review for the more senior students, it certainly was a help to me.

eventually, Sifu began showing us applications for the last sequence of movements, at which point he began breaking it down into more fundamental constituent components, connecting it to jian shu basics.

personally, i've never had the basics, since i never took any of Sifu's jian shu lessons. as a result, this was all new to me. i ended up asking John to guide me through the basic techniques, with Phunsak taking over when John got tired. there's a fair amount of material in terms of the basics, and i don't really remember all of them. Phunsak said there were 15 fundamental techniques covering both defense and offense. of course, even though John and Phunsak showed them to me, i honestly can't remember more than a handful--and all on defense.

i figure i'll learn this as i go. since i don't plan on participating in the jian shu competition at the Las Vegas tournament, i don't consider myself under pressure to push the pace to pick up jian shu. i'd rather go at a speed that lets me keep things organized and allows me to get a good grasp of them, as opposed to being rushed and haphazard.

by this time, class was winding down and we realized it was already 1:30. we all called it a day and slowly left.